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Cloned meat and animal products poll results

Thank you to everyone to participated in the cloned meat poll! Here are the somewhat surprising results (which are, of course, very unscientific but interesting anyway).

Total votes cast: 259

The votes for "Will eat cloned meat and other animal products, no problem" and "Will never eat cloned foods, ever" ran neck and neck, with the "Will eat" votes coming out just ahead, 36% to 34%. Another 26% would try cloned meat, with reservations. (The rest of the votes were "other").

In retrospect maybe it's not surprising that most people are at least willing to give cloned animal products a try, with most scientific studies telling us that it's all safe. And keep in mind we are eating quite a lot of cloned or hybrid plant products already - cloning plants by taking cuttings has been a practice for ages, as any gardener would know. I guess there is more squeamishness about cloning sentient mammals, understandably.

As for myself, I think I'm in the "I may try it but I'm skeptical" camp. But I would want there to be clear labelling of meat and other animal products that they came from GM or cloned sources. At the moment that may be the biggest point of contention between producers and consumers, with regulatory agencies caught in the middle.

Comments

My biggest fears with cloned/GM meat (and cloned/GM plants, for that matter) have to do with monoculture (i.e. lack of biodiversity). Before we had genetic mutation to help take care of those times when there was a disease or parasite... if everything is genetically the same, such things could be catastrophic.